Are you cut out for travel nursing?

For every specialty, there’s a shoo-in personality for the job. If you’re considering travel nursing, possessing the following five traits could put you over the top:

1. Are you a people person? Quickly orienting yourself to a new work setting requires you to be outgoing and able to get answers from people while projecting a diplomatic demeanor. When you’re the new kid on the block, your ability to turn strangers into allies will be a chief asset.

2. Are you tough enough? Certain types of traveling nurse jobs require heavy lifting and setting up of equipment, such as dialysis machines. If you have muscle strength to spare, it won’t go unnoticed by traveling nurse recruiters.

3. Are you a team player, but not interested in the politics? Some people honestly thrive on politics. But if you find the interpersonal drama a total drain, you’ll like the short-term assignments of travel nursing, which offer you the benefit of staying for the job but avoiding all the entanglements. And we all know every workplace has that person that nobody can stand. But there’s no personality that you can’t tolerate for only four days.
4. Do you love a challenge? Is monotony your enemy? Then look no further. There’s nothing like being a traveling nurse to fill your days with new relationships and opportunities to exercise your problem-solving prowess.

5. Do you know how to follow the rules? Travel nursing is not for those who are set in their ways. The job is to arrive and adapt. If you’re a natural-born chameleon, a career in travel nursing could be just right for you!

James DeMaria, RN, BSN, is Vice President of Renal Care Registered Nursing Services, located in Nanuet, N.Y. Founded in 1991, Renal Care Registered Nursing Services provides acute kidney dialysis services to some of the northeast’s largest hospitals and caregiving facilities. While having had no formal business training, James has excelled as an entrepreneur, a role he must balance with his responsibility as a nurse, husband and father, and is always on call, explaining, “You never work harder than you do for yourself.” He is also cohost of “Nurse's Station,” a new audio podcast by and for nurses.
By Jim DeMaria

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4 Responses to Are you cut out for travel nursing?

I agree it takes a special kind of person to be a traveling nurse and have worked with many. Just such a nurse with an Alabama drawl and a super compassionate nature took care of my Dad as we were forced to remove him from life support last year. She sat with us and talked with us for hours during Dad’s final time on earth and it was so wonderful to have her with us and to know that my Texas born Father was hearing that familiar accent during that time.